I am coming up in a later slot.

As we know, this legislation is far-reaching and has a lot in it, which we understand and respect. We are supportive, in general, of the direction it is going in. However, we have difficulties with aspects of it. The general issue for many members of An Garda Síochána is the under-resourcing of the force. They feel they do not have the backup or resources they require when attending an incident. That is mainly because of the retention and recruitment crisis, which is the primary problem at the moment and must be at…

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his indulgence on this. The proposal is to bring us into line with European countries in regard to those who would fall foul of the various sanctions regimes that have been brought in. I support that and I understand where that is coming from. I do have certain reservations about it as well. The rushed nature of it is something we should try to avoid in the future in any of these situations. A year ago Russia invaded Ukraine. The Russian aggression there has been immense, extreme and…

I commend Deputy Cullinane for tabling this motion. I commend the staff in our National Ambulance Service for the significant, tireless work they do across the length and breadth of the country. In the north west, this has been an issue for decades. In isolated rural areas the wait times for ambulances have gone through the roof. We see what the averages are but averages can sometimes disguise particularly long individual cases. People have waited an hour or an hour and a half for an ambulance in some instances. Dy…

The Minister is aware of the staggering waiting times in many of our courts for people who are victims of domestic and sexual violence. We spoke about it at a committee meeting yesterday, as it happens. I would like a commitment from him this morning setting out what concrete action will be taken to change this. I got back a list of court sittings. In Trim, people are waiting 16 weeks in some cases. In Tullamore, it is 14 weeks. In other places, cases are heard at the next sitting. This hit-and-miss scenario in dif…

I thank the Minister and look forward to that report from the Courts Service. We are all aware that people across Ireland are becoming more conscious of the scourge of domestic and gender-based violence, intimate partner violence, harassment and coercive control. As a society we are getting better at identifying people in that situation and encouraging them to seek support and come forward. More and more of them are and it is appropriate to pay tribute to the many organisations like Women's Aid, Men's Aid and the r…

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. I appreciate the work going on in respect of all that. Bringing forward legislation, setting up new agencies and focusing on all this is worthy and worthwhile but the key issue is ensuring we have the resources to deal with what is basically a pandemic across our society. According to report from the Central Statistics Office yesterday, four out of five victims of sexual abuse know the perpetrator. Half of those are children and the violence often occurs within families. Where victims…

Before I go to the question, I welcome Ellie Fay from Finglas, who is a student, to the Public Gallery. Many of our Oireachtas members bring students in here from time to time and it is always a very worthy and worthwhile thing to do. The future is bright when we have bright, dedicated and focused young people in our community. Back to business. What steps does the Minister intend to take to deal with the current retention crisis in An Garda Síochána? It has become a continuous problem in recent years but particula…

We are all conscious of that and we all want to pay tribute to the work members of An Garda Síochána do on a daily basis. A lot of this is down to that stress. I spoke to members of the service who told me that sometimes a call comes when there is an incident somewhere and they know there is going to be if not danger then certainly stress involved in that incident. They know they need at least four or maybe five people to attend but there are only two of them. When the two attend that incident they are often attack…

I appreciate that. I understand that many gardaí get great job satisfaction from what they do and work very hard in respect of that. I always wonder about having more civilian staff that are going to free up gardaí for front-line duties. The experience in communities does not show that. That is the problem here. There was a similar story when Garda stations were closed. Many Garda stations were closed across the country and here in the city of Dublin. We were told that would free up gardaí to be out in the communit…

Will the Minister consider looking at the training allowance?

Could the Minister provide an update on the courts modernisation programme and what work is being done in that respect? Many court buildings around the country are not up to a sufficient standard. Some of them are, as excellent work has been done in some places. Technology is something on which we can make vast improvements, which would assist a great deal in being able to have a more effective and efficient system.

I am aware that much work has been done in many areas around the country to modernise the Courts Service and to bring courtrooms up to the required standard. We understand that it is a ten-year plan. However, some work could be done much faster than that to improve the situation in regard to many court buildings that do not have adequate meeting rooms, space, or facilities for barristers and solicitors to be able to deal with their clients. It is an ongoing problem, especially where victims of crime are in very clo…

The digitisation of courtrooms is also important to facilitate witnesses or expert witnesses who may be in another part of the country or even abroad to be brought into the courtroom using such technology. It happens in some cases but there is not enough of it. A mechanism must be put in place to ensure that can happen. It would speed up the process. Sometimes court cases are delayed or postponed simply because the expertise that is needed at a particular time cannot be accessed. There are solutions to all of this …

I will ask the Minister about the actions of the attendance management review published in April 2022. The issue we keep hearing about is the challenges around staffing levels in the Prison Service and the impact it is having on the service's ability to deliver the core rehabilitative services, such as education and training, etc. We need to see efforts made here. I know there has been funding for an additional 100 staff, but we clearly need to expand on that.

I appreciate that and I understand it is an internal report. We know a number of recommendations were made and it is key that we know how much progress has been made in implementing them. Some of them relate to management within the prisons, how things work and certain issues that were raised in the past by whistleblowers, for want of a better word, within the system. They had issues with how the system was working and how the whole process was arranged. Moving forward, we need to ensure that the recommendations of…

We are all on the same page in respect of that. The issue raised with me is that the Prison Service is finding it very difficult to recruit and retain specialist psychiatric nurses, psychologists and other mental health professionals. The pension entitlements for everyone working in the Prison Service used to be calculated on a 30-year basis. Staff were entitled to their pension after 30 years which attracted people into the service because in most other public sector areas, they would have to wait until they had 4…

I listened to the Minister's reply. It truly goes to the heart of this matter. Most of us will probably have met Lucia O'Farrell at some point over the last number of years. She has been a dedicated warrior to get justice for her son. The problem we have in this State is that, when a mistake is made, the initial reaction of many State agencies is to cover it up and then to cover up the cover-up. That has been the experience of a great many people. In this particular case, there is an opportunity to do the right thi…

In the past year, since the illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine by Russia, we have seen large numbers of people from Ukraine come to Ireland. They come here legally under the EU's temporary protection directive and under international law we are, of course, obliged to accommodate and facilitate these people who are fleeing war. We have also seen large numbers of people come to Ireland from other countries, including in Africa and Asia, seeking international protection. Again, we have international legal obligati…

I commend Deputy Doherty on bringing forward the motion. The cost-of-living crisis is biting every community in the country. In my constituency, I regularly deal with people coming to my clinic with various issues relating to bills they cannot pay. Recently, a single mother whose rent has been increased by almost €300 a month came in. She receives the housing assistance payment, HAP, but her landlord, of course, wants a certain amount under the table. She cannot afford to go anywhere else and there is nowhere else …